UFC on ESPN: Ngannou vs. Dos Santos: Predictions and Picks

#5 Drew Dober vs. Polo Reyes

Drew Dober has become a reliable action fighter in the UFC

Neither of these Lightweights are likely to be bothering the UFC title picture any time soon, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a place on the roster. Both men have been involved in plenty of exciting fights over their UFC tenure and on a weaker card like this, a potential brawl between the two should make for a solid addition to the main card.

The last time we saw Drew Dober, he came up short against Beneil Dariush despite stunning the grappler pretty badly in the first round. It was Dober’s UFC career in a nut-shell essentially; he’s got decent skills everywhere and hits hard enough to be given a shot in any fight, but he’s just not quite good enough to jump to the elite level. Which is fine, of course – Dober is a uber-tough gatekeeper and the UFC will always need fighters like that.

Reyes meanwhile has made his name as almost a pure brawler ever since he emerged into the UFC from the second season of TUF: Latin America back in 2015. His 2016 brawl against Dong Hyun Ma was a stone-cold classic, with both men exchanging huge punches until the Korean simply couldn’t stay conscious. His loss to James Vick showed that he can’t simply exchange wild punches with everyone and win, while Damir Hadzovic exposed the holes in his ground game a few months ago, but in general, he’s a threat to anyone simply due to his reckless nature.

In my opinion, this one should come down to the choices that Dober makes; if he decides to stand and bang with Reyes, then it’s anyone’s fight – both men have pretty solid chins, both men can hit hard and neither has shown much fear from inside the pocket.

But the smart course of action for Dober would probably be to use his underrated wrestling to take Polo Reyes down; Hadzovic was able to do it with little problem and worked Reyes over from the top position heavily, and I don’t see any reason why Dober wouldn’t be able to replicate that gameplan.

Based on his previous fights it’s somewhat of a question mark as to whether he’ll be able to do that – play the smart game, that is – but I’m thinking he will and he’ll have enough to outwork Reyes for a clear decision in what should be a fun fight to watch.

The Pick: Dober via unanimous decision